1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to communications networks and, more particularly, to a system and method for controlling a system of devices using a social network application.
2. Description of the Related Art
A social network is a public network that allows a group of registered members to socialize by sharing ideas, conversations, and digital resources such as web links, photos, videos, and documents. The social network can either be organized around a particular special interest (niche network) or open to all (general network). The popularity and success of Facebook™, which is a general social network, has spawned a large number of niche social networks in the Internet.
Social networking applications can be web-based applications that can allow users to create and publish shared content on their personal web pages. Shared content can include all types of digital media accessible by visitors to the personal web page, including text, web links, photographs, video content, and audio content. Using the social networking application, access to the shared content can be restricted to a subset of the users that can access the personal web page, which can itself be a subset of the users of the social networking application. Permission to access the shared content can be set by the owner of the personal web page, for example.
The major advantages of social networks over conventional discussion forums or message bulletin boards are that:                Interactions between members are near-realtime;        Groups consisting of selected members can be created, with group access limited only to group members;        Posts or messages can be targeted to individual members, groups, threads, or broadcasted to all (depending on access restrictions setting);        Expanding an individual's connections through discovering mutual friends is much easier;        Having a central communications hub through which all member interactions occur provides a rich source of analytics and behavioral data from which to mine;        Surveys or polls of network members can be conducted very easily;        
A smart device is defined as a device with sufficient processing capacity and embedded firmware that allows it to perform certain functions semi-autonomously. Depending on the level of sophistication, a smart device is capable of making decisions to carry out its intended function effectively. Examples of smart devices include smart mobile phones, MFPs (Multi-Function Peripherals), network routers, smart TVs, etc.
A device management system is a system that allows administrators to manage and monitor networks of smart devices. An internal deployment model consists of a server located within a corporate firewall to manage smart devices (e.g. network routers and MFPs) that are within the corporate network. An external deployment model consists of a public server accessible through the Internet to manage smart devices that are within individual corporate networks. There are pros and cons associated with each deployment model, with security, performance, centrality of data, ease of use, and network protocol support being the main concerns for deciding which model to use. Regardless of the deployment model, a typical system should allow administrators to view the latest status of monitored devices, query for the most recent status from individual devices or group of devices, and control or configure certain settings of devices. More advanced systems allow software to deliver updates to devices, view the current display screen of devices, or remotely control certain functions of devices.
Creating a device management system is a non-trivial undertaking. The system is limited by the standard or proprietary network protocols that the managed devices support. An example of a standard device management network protocol is the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) which is an Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks. SNMP is a component of the Internet Protocol Suite as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It consists of a set of standards for network management, including an application layer protocol, a database schema, and a set of data objects. SNMP exposes management data in the form of variables on the managed systems, which describe the system configuration. These variables can then be queried (and sometimes set) by managing applications.
In typical SNMP uses, one or more administrative computers, called managers, have the task of monitoring or managing a group of hosts or devices on a computer network. Each managed system executes, at all times, a software component called an agent which reports information via SNMP to the manager. Essentially, SNMP agents expose management data on the managed systems as variables. The protocol also permits active management tasks, such as modifying and applying a new configuration through remote modification of these variables. The variables accessible via SNMP are organized in hierarchies. These hierarchies, and other metadata (such as type and description of the variable), are described by Management Information Bases (MIBs).
Examples of proprietary device management network protocols are: Sharp open systems architecture (OSA) and Canon CPCA. A device management system typically consists of a server platform that communicates with managed devices through the mentioned standard or proprietary network protocols. The server has to maintain a database of devices. The device database typically contains status information of each device, as well as commands to be sent to each device. The server also has to maintain a security policy, utilizing user authentication to ensure that non-authorized personnel are not allowed access to the managed devices.
Most device management systems in use today utilize an internal deployment model. Canon's iWEMC (imageWare Enterprise Management Console), Sharp's PAU (Printer Administration Utility), HP Web Jetadmin, and Xerox CentreWare Web are good examples. There is no convenient solution available for a central authority (e.g. the device manufacturer, dealers, or vendors) to manage and monitor a fleet of devices across different company networks. In one such system a central server collects device status and events from all MFPs that have been configured properly. The server is also capable of pushing out firmware updates and control commands to the MFP devices. The disadvantages of existing device management solutions are that (1) they only work properly with a specific brand of devices, (2) most device management systems utilize internal deployment model so it is hard for one central administrator to manage devices for many different clients, (3) each company has to set up its own dedicated management server and administrator, and (4) data collection for analytics is only possible if the device management system has this feature built-in.
It would be advantageous if a network of smart devices could be controlled based upon modifications to pre-existing, easy to use social networking applications.